David Pasternack, famed fisherman and chef/co-owner of Esca in New York, recently took a trip down to New Orleans to visit Donald Link, James Beard Award-winner and chef/co-owner of the legendary Cochon Restaurant. I recently caught up with him at the new Italian eatery, Eataly, where he was regaling Marco Canora (New York chef at Hearth and Insieme) with stories of his trip. Here's a short transcript of our conversation.

DAVID PASTERNACK: Dude, I just came back from bow-and-arrow fishing down in New Orleans. We went to Woodland Plantation for a crab boil [NB: Woodland Plantation is the home pictured on the label of Southern Comfort]. We sat around drinking Miller High Life beer and a guy there says, "Hey, come with me, I want to show you something." We went to the swamp behind this house, and he started making these crazy calling noises. These alligators started coming out of the water! We threw a bunch of whole redfish at them. It was nuts. Then, at midnight, we drove about an hour to an airboat where we went fishing in the bayous for redfish with a bow and arrow — it's called bowfishing. You shine floodlights at the water and you can see them swimming — it's only two to three feet of water — then you shoot them from the boat.

DP: It was the first time I ever picked up a bow and arrow in my life, man. So you see the fish, you gotta aim below. It's really hard. From your perspective, by the time you get the bow and arrow cranked, he's moved somewhere else. But the next morning we went rod-and-reel fishing and I gave them a clinic on how to fish. You're allowed, like, 20 fish for the boat. I think I caught 15 of them.

JASMINE MOY: How was the water?

DP: The water was spectacular. The quantity and quality of the life that was in the water — I can't describe to you how much it was. It was unbelievable.

JM: Any reminders of the oil spill?

DP: We went to this one dock and I was like, "What's up with this class trip?" They said, "Those are all people that are working for BP." There was this big group of people, everyone had a life preserver on like it was a school field trip.

MC: Dude, somebody showed me a YouTube video of what I think they call, I think, fisting?